When place matching using name match, one of the options is for our system to auto-populate matches based on search terms you provide.
In this step, you're asked to select the column(s) that identify the place, and add optional keywords to help the system create a complete and accurate search.
In the screenshot below, no columns or keywords have been added.
Step 1: Add the column(s) that contains place names.
The far-left column shows you what term will be searched for each row. At this point, clicking Next would initiate the search and most rows would auto-populate with incorrect matches — cities instead of school districts.
Step 2: If needed, add search terms to improve searches.
Adding "School District" and "KS" to each row will help ensure that the system looks for and matches to school districts instead of cities.
Tips for accurate matches
Try to use the terms you would use to find these geographies if you were searching for them in the mySidewalk platform.
The system will select columns based on the column headers, but sometimes these will not be helpful. For example, you may have a file with columns "Cities" and "Counties". The proper match would be to cities, but if both columns were selected, the search would be something like "Salina, Saline County" when the best search would actually be "Salina KS or "Salina KS Area" so that you don't end up with some or all county matches. Again, try to use the terms that you would when searching for a geography in the platform.
If you have files with mixed geographic levels (e.g. states, counties, and cities), we generally recommend you use manual matching for these; however, it's common to have a file that it mostly one geographic level (e.g. counties) plus one row for the state and/or nation. In these cases, formulate the search that works best for the vast majority of rows, and then manually match or correct the other rows if needed in the next step.
Additional examples
Arizona County Loan Data
The search needs the County column and additional keywords "County, AZ."
Colorado Municipality Accidents Data
The search needs the additional keyword "CO."
